Writers and Editors (Pat McNees's blog)

The Massachusetts Independent Contractor Law was created to prevent worker exploitation, writes Andrea Shea for WBUR radio, and employers who "get busted classifying incorrectly — say, giving a worker a 1099 form at tax time rather than a W-2 — [will] face hefty fines." But writers and artists in Massachusetts are victims of (more…)

How do you find something good to read in a brave new self-published world? asks Laura Miller in When anyone can be a published author (Salon, 6-22-10). Those of us who have worked in book publishing know how much really bad writing comes through slush (more…)

Publishers have to change the way they do business, because digital delivery increases supply even more than it increases demand, so prices have to go down, blogs Mike Shatzkin. He writes that "getting from today (selling content) to tomorrow (selling audiences) depends on using today’s asset to build tomorrow’s." Doing this will require using "content as bait," monetizing "the eyeballs you own," not "the copyrights you own." In A roadmap for the future: 6 suggestions for today’s publishers that many can’t follow he recommends that publishers (more…)

The struggling magazine with a historic brand has structured a comeback around "creating a solid brand identity; a digital-first strategy; building a marketing services operation; expanding live events; and maintaining a relentless focus on hiring top talent," writes Bill Mickey in Behind The Atlantic's Brand Reinvention (Audience Development, June 9, 2010). Atlantic media president Justin Smith, in his keynote address at the Folio: Show, was reported as saying The Atlantic's brand had suffered from a lack of definition. It's new tagline, "Brave Thinking," defines the brand's essence. (more…)

""We are pleased to inform you" that we will be slicing your royalties up to 50%, is the essence of a letter from John Wiley & Sons to Bloomberg Press authors. "John Wiley & Sons acquired Bloomberg Press, the books division of Bloomberg, in March," says the June 2010 Authors Guild alert. "At the end of April, it began sending a letter to hundreds of Bloomberg Press authors purporting to inform them 'about a few differences in the accounting systems of Bloomberg and Wiley (more…)

Digital Self-Publishing Shakes up Traditional Publishing. "Much as blogs have bitten into the news business and YouTube has challenged television, digital self-publishing is creating a powerful new niche in books that's threatening the traditional industry," write Geoffrey A. Fowler and Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg in the Wall Street Journal online. "Once derided as 'vanity' titles by the publishing establishment, self-published books suddenly are able to (more…)

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Godwin's Law: ""As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches"
~ Mike Godwin, creator of Godwin's Rule of Nazi Analogies, fearing glib use of the term will dilute the meaning of "Never Again"